Co-founder of US-sanctioned exchange Suex denies illicit activity

Vasily Zhabykin confirmed to The New York Times his ties to the Suex exchange, whose cryptocurrency addresses were added to the U.S. sanctions list.

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He said the company was established to develop software for the financial industry.

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Zhabykin denies any illicit activity by Suex and says that the U.S. Treasury targeted the company by mistake.

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“I don’t understand how I am involved in this,” he said.

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Zhabykin said the Czech-registered Suex was a failed project and, since 2019, had conducted only half a dozen transactions. He added that he had only three employees. However, a reliable ForkLog source on the exchange market describes Suex as one of the largest exchanges in Russia.

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Zhabykin’s LinkedIn profile indicates that he currently heads the neobank NUUM from the mobile operator MTS.

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The other investors in the company, Ildar Zakirov and Maxim Subbotin publicly associate themselves with Suex.

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Ildar Zakirov declined to comment. Vasily Zhabykin and Maxim Subbotin had not responded to ForkLog’s inquiry at the time of publication.

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The legal entity of the exchange – SUEX OTC s.r.o. – is registered in the Czech Republic. The largest shareholder of Suex is Russian Egor Petukhovsky. He is also the director of listings at the popular Telegram bot for crypto exchange Chatex.

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In an archived version of Egor Petukhovsky’s personal blog we found the history of Suex’s creation, where he states that the partners were Ildar [Zakirov] and Maxim [Subbotin].

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“…It was then that the three of us decided to try to run the exchange more organized, with client outreach and the establishment of records. The first deal took place on 29 August 2018,” the blog states.

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Petukhovsky also notes that “a key role” in the emergence of Suex was played by Ivan Petukhovsky, one of the founders of the EXMO exchange. According to the blog, the first exchange with Egor Petukhovsky for 4000 USDT was conducted with him.

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According to the history, Suex’s first exchanges were conducted on EXMO. We requested comment from the platform.

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“I would note that Ivan did indeed play a large role in the development of cryptocurrencies in Russia — and Egor was not the only person he pushed to found his own crypto business. Indeed such an exchange occurred — there is nothing illegal about it. The first exchanges of SUEX indeed took place on EXMO, but he stopped doing so fairly quickly. For three years all transactions on EXMO are checked by CipherTrace and manual checks; we have full verification of all users and a serious British compliance,” said Maria Stankevich, EXMO’s Director of Growth, in a comment.

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Originally, Suex was owned by the Estonian company Izibits OÜ, which still holds the local license for virtual asset service providers.

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On the Russian-language site, Izibits OÜ is listed as its corporate owner. It is also the owner and operator of the Telegram bot for exchanging cryptocurrencies, Chatex.

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The domain Suex.io is owned by Hightrade Finance Ltd., registered in Saint Vincent. It is also mentioned in Chatex’s Terms of Use as a legal entity.

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According to the documents documents [OFAC], the crypto exchange Suex is registered at two addresses. One is in Prague, and the other in Moscow City, in the Q penthouse on the 31st floor of the Federation Tower.

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Another office is located in Saint Petersburg.

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Earlier, the U.S. Treasury added the crypto exchange Suex to the sanctions list, along with 25 addresses on the Bitcoin, Ethereum and Tether networks.

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According to the department, funds passing through the platform supported operators of at least eight ransomware programs, scam projects, dark-net marketplaces and the now-defunct BTC-e exchange. Assets linked to cybercriminals accounted for up to 40% of Suex’s turnover.

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